Canzano: Oregon State puts outside eyes on athletic department
Consulting firm pokes around Corvallis.
The team at Huron Consulting Group descended upon Oregon State’s campus last week to poke around the athletic department. They popped their heads into offices and asked questions. For 72 hours, the consultants looked under rocks and took notes.
Bernard Muir, the former Stanford athletic director, made the trip. So did former Duke University AD Kevin White. They both work for Huron now. The scene made me wonder how much longer OSU Athletic Director Scott Barnes wants to stay on the job in Corvallis.
As one campus insider told me this week, “Right now, Scott can choose how it ends.”
Barnes wasn’t around to see the end of the Bob De Carolis era of OSU athletics. But he’s unknowingly reliving it. “Builder Bob” poured himself into the job during a 17-year run in the department, but was unceremoniously pushed out at the end.